Method of Operating a Navigation System Using Images

1. A method of operating a navigation system comprising: determining a route between an origin and a destination; providing a photographic image showing a geographic area through which said route passes, wherein said photographic image shows the geographic area from a land-based viewpoint; identifying a business visible in the photographic image; obtaining an advertisement from a database stored on a computer readable medium for the identified business visible in the photographic image; identifying, in the photographic image, a point of interest separate from advertisement for the business visible in the photographic image; providing a route highlight on said photographic image identifying a path corresponding to the route; providing a label associated with the point of interest on said photographic image; and providing the advertisement on said photographic image at a location of the business visible in the photographic image.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is a text or an icon.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement has a predetermined transparency.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is placed at a pixel associated with the business visible in the image.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the photographic image is a panoramic image.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the photographic image provides an angle of view of 360 degrees.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said photographic image is associated with location information in the database.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising: providing information regarding the business based on a selection of the advertisement by an end user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing the advertisement on said photographic image accesses data from the indicating a location of the business in the photographic image.

10. A navigation system comprising: a processor; a database stored on a computer readable medium; and an application executable on said processor to obtain a photographic image from the database, to identify a business visible in the photographic image, to identify a point of interest visible in the photographic image, to overlay a route highlight on the photographic image, to overlay a label on the photographic image for the point of interest, and to overlay an advertisement on the photographic image for the identified business visible in the photographic image, wherein the photographic image provides a land-based view.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the advertisement has a predetermined transparency.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the photographic image provides an angle of view of 360 degrees.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein said photographic image is associated with location information in the database.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the advertisement is an icon.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein the application provides information regarding the business visible in the photographic image based on a selection of the advertisement by an end user.

16. A method of operating a system that provides navigation-related services, the method comprising: providing a photographic image showing a geographic area from a land-based viewpoint, wherein a plurality of businesses are visible in the photographic image; obtaining an advertisement label from a database stored on a computer readable medium corresponding to a first business visible in the photographic image; obtaining a point of interest label from the database corresponding to a second business visible in the photographic image; placing the advertisement label on said photographic image for the first business visible in the photographic image; and placing the point of interest label on said photographic image for the second business visible in the photographic image.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the advertisement label is placed at a label location associated with the business visible in the image.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the advertisement label is placed at a location of the business visible in the image.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising: providing information regarding the business visible in the photographic image based on a selection of the advertisement label by an end user.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one pixel of the photographic image includes multiple bits of overlay information to allow for variations in transparency between the photographic image and the point of interest label or advertisement label.